Metamorphosis
by sunnyblueskyes
Summary: •Mild AU• Following Naruto's completion of his Sage training and Sasuke's reluctant and unplanned return to a devastated Konoha, Sakura is thrust into another shade of a world she has yet to comprehend and learns that life stops for none. Even if you beg.
1. Resolve

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Metamorphosis**

_Written and typed by LittleMissEffervescent_

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**Spoilers: Chapters 309 and beyond, I think.**

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**Chapter One**

**Resolve

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'_I couldn't even land a punch on him.' _Sakura reflected bitterly. _'I was useless and a burden.'_

Sakura had sped straight to a deserted training area right after she and her team arrived back to Konoha, with full intent on sweating out her frustrations. It wasn't much of a concern to Sakura that she and her team had failed to retrieve Sasuke –which was not the original mission objective regardless- but the fact that even after her rigorous and nearly endless training the past two years, she _still _couldn't prove herself strong. She had severely incapacitated and aided in the death of a renowned and deadly Akatsuki member, but couldn't land a simple _punch_ on the stubborn and incredibly _dense_ idiot that held her past affections.

The only thing that Sakura was of use on the mission was healing injuries and providing back up. It was what _she_ was trained for. _She _was not supposed to get injured in a blindly rushed attempt to calm down her raging teammate, thus, resulting in her relying on the sadistic medic, _Kabuto_ for unwanted assistance.

And when she and her team had run into Sasuke, she acted like a complete lunatic, lunging for one of her current teammate's neck and yelling at him, only to come face to face with the young man she desperately searched for. She could barely form a coherent_ sentence_ when she noticed his presence. She had stood, horrified, when Sasuke had injured her team captain _and _her other two teammates… Sakura had stood there, staring blankly at the battle scene, not making a single movement to try and assist her team. At all.

_What was wrong with me?_

Even after training under the renowned and infamous Sannin, Tsunade, Sakura still couldn't rid herself of her complete and utter incapability to do anything. Her other teammates were miles ahead of her in skills, prowess, and experience. She may have had her knowledge and chakra control but knowing what exactly _what_ a mitochondria was didn't precisely help her when fighting a shinobi three times her size and muscle density. She may have made up for her lack of natural strength with her practically inhuman chakra control, but she was basically useless once her chakra was depleted. Not to mention her _stamina_. She had the endurance of a rotting corpse.

Sakura growled in frustration.

_Why did I just _stand_ there, _gaping_ like I was senile?_

A loud and satisfying thud of the tree's trunk alerted Sakura that she had indeed chucked the tree a good fifty meters from where she stood panting, reveling in her thoughts.

Sakura straightened, wiping the slick sheen of sweat on her forehead and removed her dirt-caked leather gloves. Stowing them casually in her back pouch, she began her slow trek to her apartment, her arms hanging limply at her sides.

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"I'm home," Sakura muttered quietly as she entered her dark apartment. She reflected what she was going to eat for dinner with a thoughtful expression while absently flicking on the dim florescent lights.

Untying and slipping her crimson headband in her back pouch, she discarded her gear and trappings, swiftly throwing them in their designated corner. Then, she began to rifle through her cabinets inattentively, searching for a small meal to last her the night until she purchased groceries the next morning.

An amused scoff blew out her lips when Sakura found a relatively large pile of instant ramen cups stacked –painstakingly by Naruto, she assumed- in a private shelf directly atop the cabinet that housed her kettle. She quickly grabbed a cup without much care for what flavor it was, and began to pour water from her sink tap into the kettle.

She sank into one of her dining table chairs, after setting the kettle on the heating stove, with an exhausted sigh. Sakura stretched lethargically while glimpsing around her homey, empty apartment. Her eyes fell to the bright photograph that hung beside her dulled family photo. She smiled wistfully while gazing at her past's gleeful smile, her bright, swaying hair, and her two scowling teammates.

Her melancholy smile faded, contorting into a slight grimace. Reminders of her obsolete self during her latest mission were not needed at the moment. Sakura slid out of the wooden chair and lifted the whistling kettle off of the stove and turned it off with a flick of her wrist. She set the kettle in her sink and silently padded into her bathroom for a shower.

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Slipping on a plain red tank top, Sakura rubbed her white towel in her hair while stepping out of her torrid bathroom. After pulling on a pair of comfortable black shorts, she threw the towel on her bed with a haphazard glance and walked into her kitchen.

Sakura set the steaming mug of tea on her coffee table and made her self comfortable on one of her single armchairs with a hefty medical textbook in hand. She took a long sip from her mug while absently flipping to a page she bookmarked and began reading.

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"You've got to stop cramming in the middle of the night. Your neck is gonna snap if you keep on sleeping like that, Sakura," a scratchy voice remarked softly.

She sat up, stretching lethargically, ignoring the textbook that fell from her lap onto the hardwood floor. "I gave you one of my apartment keys in case of an _emergency_, so unless someone I know is on the verge of dying, I'm going to shove a chopstick up your nose when we go to eat today."

"Sorry, Sakura, I just kinda decided to come earlier," Naruto grinned sheepishly. "I don't know why. Kakashi won't be at Ichiraku for another half hour so…"

Sakura rolled her eyes blearily while picking up her textbook and placing it in its correct place on her bookshelf. She didn't bother to find out why but, she couldn't find it in her self to give Naruto a reassuring smile. "Just give me ten minutes to get ready and we can head out. We might have to cut breakfast a little short today; I have to see Tsunade-sama and hand in my mission report… that I haven't finished yet. Damn it. I fell asleep before I could complete it." Sakura hopped quickly into her study and began to rifle through her desk, in search for her mission report.

Her teammate cautiously stuck his head in the room and glanced around with a doubtful gaze. "Did you even start it?"

"I really don't know. I don't think so," Sakura murmured thoughtfully. She turned her head towards the doorway. "Did you?"

Naruto nodded with a small triumphant smile. "Finished it last night at two in the morning. I got kinda in-depth with the detail. It's probably the longest mission report I've ever written." Naruto paused. "Did you… Were you planning on mentioning what happened with Sasuke and Orochimaru?"

Her figure tensed slightly in the midst closing one of the drawers in her cherry wood desk. Sakura turned back toward Naruto with a sigh and a small shrug of her shoulders. "I probably have to. You, Yamato and Sai included them in your reports so it would be weird if I didn't."

Her companion nodded slowly. "Yeah, I guess."

The two stood silently in Sakura's study, one staring at the other, Sakura staring inattentively at her vacant desk. Naruto studied Sakura's melancholy expression intently. Her entire form was still and was epitome of on edge. She was biting on her bottom lip viciously while her hands were fisted tightly at her sides.

Naruto took a tentative step forward. "Why don't you go and get ready to leave, Sakura? We can meet up with Sai after we eat and get some training done."

The young woman turned towards Naruto with a small smile and nodded. "Yeah, I think I could use some sparring. Just wait out in the living room; I'll be out in ten minutes."

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"You did this didn't you?" Naruto asked flatly as he surveyed the vandalized training area. Trees randomly spread out through the open area on their sides, and large boulder sized cracks and faults zigzagged in precarious places everywhere. Both Sakura and Naruto stood observing the destruction at a safe distance, Naruto looking a bit too straight faced for Sakura's liking. Then, he started smiling wildly.

She shrugged with uncaring nonchalance, effectively shrouding her surprise. Sakura had dealt more damage to the training ground than she had thought. She was extremely frustrated, Sakura admitted, but had she really cleaved that large oak tree in half during her wordless tirade?

Naruto was still grinning, his head swerving from side to side, estimating how many trees Sakura had uprooted. "Do you think we can squeeze in a sparring session in this mess?"

Sakura shook her head with a humorless laugh. "I suppose I should clean some of this up. No one will be able to use this training area with it like this." She muttered while effortlessly lifting a thick and hefty tree in the middle of the field and tossing it aside. "Do you think we should try and put these trees back in the ground or just leave them on the side for people to use as posts?"

The blond kicked a smaller tree out of his way as he approached Sakura. "Nah, I don't think it'll work. Just leave all the trees in a pile and let the people who want to use them find them. It'll take up too much work to try and replant every single tree you took out."

Sakura smiled sheepishly before turning back around and beginning to clear a path through the field, Naruto creating another path behind her.

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"You two seem tired," the telltale voice of Kakashi came behind Naruto as he and Sakura stood examining their handiwork.

Sakura sighed. "Where have you been for the past three hours, Kakashi?"

"Yeah, we worked our asses off nearly all morning and you decide after we just finish cleaning up to show?" Naruto growled.

"Ah, forgive me. I was just released from the hospital an hour ago and then I had to have something decent to eat. No offense to the hospital food, but I don't particularly find it digestible, or edible for that matter. So, I decided to get some food at a restaurant," Kakashi drawled absently while waving a hand dismissively at Naruto, his head buried in a bright red book.

Brandishing a rude hand gesture at Kakashi as he was reading, Naruto opened his mouth to accuse him of blasphemy but Sakura cut him off with a roll of her eyes. "I happen to know for a fact that you were released from the hospital _two days ago at your own request_, Kakashi. You would still be in the hospital if you didn't demand your release. Do not lie to the people who know your indecent punctuality like they know Naruto's love of ramen. Is this what you greet your pupils with after they just returned from a mission?" Sakura clucked her tongue with a raised eyebrow as Naruto tapped his foot impatiently beside her.

Kakashi closed his book with a muted snap before launching himself off the tree branch he was sitting on and landed leisurely in front of his two old students, one glaring holes through his mask and the other looking expectantly at him with a small smile on her face.

"What were you two doing the entire morning?" was his lazy question as he examined the two's worn posture and the dirt and scratches on them.

Naruto grinned proudly. "We were cleaning up some damage. You should have seen what this place looked like before Sakura and I got here. It looked like a stampede went through after an earthquake hit. I thought Shizune let out the old Grandma out in the field drunk or something at first. You weren't drunk when you did this were you, Sakura?"

Sakura rolled her eyes while smacking Naruto's arm playfully. "I was not _drunk_. I just needed to vent and, while I could have beaten the snot out of you for enjoyment, the training area was the first thing I thought of. I didn't even do much during the mission so… I had plenty of chakra to spare." Her tone had taken a quieter, more subdued turn. Sakura's gaze became melancholy as she shifted around uneasily.

Kakashi observed Sakura's agitation curiously before turning his gaze to Naruto, who was staring his teammate confusedly. He sighed. "Since you guys are so tired out, I'll take you to Ichiraku. My treat."

Naruto brightened instantly. Sakura, however, replied with a small regretful smile and shook her head. "I'm sorry, Kakashi. I can't. I have to discuss with Tsunade about some things. It'll take a while so… can I have a rain check on the ramen?"

"Of course," her former teacher patted her head affectionately while giving her a reassuring smile. "Anytime."

"Are you sure, Sakura?" Naruto's worried expression made Sakura want to laugh bitterly. "Can't Tsunade wait?"

His teammate shook her head and waved her hand at them, gesturing for them to hurry. "There's ramen waiting for you two. I'll eat with you some other time. Besides, Naruto, I ate breakfast with you today. Eat one bowl of ramen for me, will you?"

Naruto nodded slowly, his expression still confused and unsure, before he and Kakashi began their walk to Ichiraku. The remaining Team Seven member watched her teammates as they both left, a bitter, nostalgic smile on her face.

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Sakura marched slowly through the throng of bustling people, her determined gaze focused intently on the path in front of her. She didn't seem to mind or notice the greetings or inquisitive gazes cast her way. Tucking a few stray strands of pink hair back and taking a deep, calming breath, Sakura knocked on the Hokage office door.

Her teacher's confident, piercing voice barely sounded muffled as she uttered an absent, "Enter."

Sakura gripped the door knob tightly as she swung the door open and stepped inside Tsunade's office. Her master didn't glance up as she busily signed papers, a strange and extremely abnormal gleam of concentration and seriousness in her eyes. Sakura sighed. At lease Tsunade was sober.

The Hokage looked up when she heard Sakura's sigh of relief and blinked. She set down her pen and straightened the papers in front of her with a small cough. "What is it, Sakura?"

She saw her student's jaw clench as she stiffly handed her a small stack of papers. "My mission report," Sakura explained. "Along with a briefing of what occurred after we passed the mission objective." Sakura had stopped by her apartment to finish her mission report and to take a shower, before heading to the Hokage Mansion to address her master.

Tsunade nodded. She had read Sakura's other teammates' reports. Truthfully, she wasn't particularly surprised with the failure to capture and return Uchiha Sasuke to Konoha. Sakura's team simply wasn't prepared. "Alright. I will review your mission report later on."

Tsunade waved her hand dismissively before reaching for her pen but paused. Sakura had been dismissed, but she showed no inclination to leave the office. She stood completely still, her hands braced at her sides; her eyes held Tsunade's determinedly but her head held low, a sign of respect. Tsunade was briefly reminded of Sakura's expression of fortitude and nervousness as she requested training from Tsunade three years previously. Except this time, her student didn't have an ounce of nerves in her expression. Sakura clearly wasn't going to leave soon.

The Hokage raised her eyebrows expectantly.

And Sakura responded with a slight smile before straightening and cleared her throat. "Tsunade-sama, I would like you to intensify my training starting tomorrow for the next year or two to prepare me for the Jounin Exams. I would like to take them to gauge my strength and improve my skills. The one thing that I know I lack as a shinobi is experience. The Exams will lessen that. Also, the Exams don't require my need of a team and considering the… circumstances, that won't be much of an issue."

Tsunade observed Sakura skeptically. "You want to partake in the Jounin Exams so soon?"

Sakura smiled. "If there's something that's been branded into my mind during my training under you, it's that strength is something you acquire with experience, intensive training, strong will, and the knowing of the possibility of getting your ass handed to you repeatedly."

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"_It is in your moments of decision that your destiny is shaped."_

_- Anthony Robbins

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**Review? Comment? Critique? Complain? Anythings? :D Thanks for reading! Should I continue?**

_Standard Disclaimer for my Fan Fiction:_

_**Naruto is the rightful property of Masashi Kishimoto... who I am not... nor ever will be... -sniffle-**_


	2. Dawn's Break

**Metamorphosis**

_Written and typed by LittleMissBoredNAiry_

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**Chapter Two**

**Dawn's Break  
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It was raining. It hardly ever rained in the village.

'_Ironic that it would rain today of all days.'_ Sakura thought. Gently placing her pure white chrysanthemum on top of a bed of similar flowers with a respective bow, she stepped back slowly to examine the casket before her. The picture of Kakashi mounted on what would be the foot of the casket was picked by Sakura herself. It was the only one she felt actually hinted of some of Kakashi's well hidden personality. Smiling brilliantly at the camera was a cheeky looking blond and Kakashi's secretive little smile, only looking a little livelier than usual.

Sakura lowered her gaze. Kakashi's framed picture began to blur as the rain poured on steadily. The sky was darkening to a battleship gray. As she turned back around to return to her respective place in line with the rest of the shinobi attending the funeral, Sakura scrutinized the morose expressions plastered solemnly on each and every face in front of her. They were all standing, in painfully organized lines of twenty-five, watching Sakura as she slowly made her way back to her place in between Sai and the Hokage, Tsunade. Her master stepped forward and onto the podium.

"_We grieve the ill-fated death of Hatake Kakashi on this day, one week after his official death to the leader of the organization that attacked Konohagakure, Pain. You shall forever be remembered and honored, Kakashi, as a noble and courageous shinobi of this village..."_

She left before Tsunade could finish the sentence. Staring blankly at the dark marble epitaph of deceased and honored soldiers, Sakura absentmindedly swept away a lock of hair, soaked and dripping water gradually. His name had already been ceremoniously carved into the precious memorial days before Kakashi's funeral was held. The cold granite felt cleansing against her calloused hand as she lightly traced his name. There was a rough contrast between the sensation of the smooth granite on the outside, slowly weathered and smoothed by the elements and of man's work, and the sharp, coarse feeling of the names embedded onto the sacred cenotaph.

"You aren't going to cry over his death are you, Sakura?"

The rhythmic downpour of rain was the only thing that she could hear. Sai's low, tranquil voice and question registered in her mind, before fading, as if it was never spoken at all. She remembered answering quietly before sinking to her knees.

"_I have a feeling this is my funeral too. I can't cry in that case, now can I?"_

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"Sakura, I need you to gather your team together tonight for a reconnaissance mission."

Her hand paused, inches away from grabbing the doorknob of Tsunade's office door. Glancing back towards the large wooden desk where the Hokage sat in her majestic leather chair, Sakura retracted her hand back to her side and spun around, standing stock still, waiting patiently.

Tsunade sat up straighter in her chair, clasping her hands together and setting them on her desk calmly, and cleared her throat.

"This morning, just hours before you came back from your mission, I received an A-class report stating that a small village on the south eastern border of Sound country was found raided and massacred. All inhabitants of the village were killed and their supplies taken. I have no absolute confirmation that this statement is true. And although I find the ranking of it to be overvalued, the Council Advisors seem dead-set on sending a team of that rank or higher to undertake the recon mission and verify if the report is true. I had the choice of either sending your team or Shikamaru's. But considering how occupied he seems training Kurenai's son, I think I went with the better choice of sending for you."

She pulled out from a locked drawer two sealed scrolls and tossed them at Sakura before resuming her briefing. "One of those scrolls- the one sealed with Konoha's symbol- contains basic information about the village you will be traveling to and the other will have instructions on what you should be on the lookout for when you arrive. I trust you can figure out the rest?"

"Yes, of course." Sakura nodded quickly as she stowed the scrolls into her back pouch. "Will you want me to brief the Captain and Natsuya of the mission or would you like to do it, Lady Tsunade?"

She shook her head with a small smile. "You can brief them after we're done here. Miyuki was already informed of the report and mission details this morning; she was the one that received it before I did anyway. Prepare to leave tonight at dusk. The mission is recon so you have a three month deadline, but I doubt it will take you that long to gather that information. Two weeks, at the most. I won't be surprised if you finished it earlier than that. Hopefully, you'll be back before Naruto comes back from his training.

"And in regards to Naruto, are you sure you want me to be the one to inform him of what happened recently?" Tsunade quirked an eyebrow at her old student.

"It would just hurt him even more if it came from me. He'll somehow change the situation in his mind and make it seem like his fault," Sakura murmured. "I don't want that to happen so it would be best if you were the one to notify him. Besides, there is no guarantee that we'll make it back in time from the mission to meet Naruto." She shrugged stiffly. "Judging by the vague details of this mission, it could take much more than two weeks. You'd have a better chance of Naruto coming back while dragging Sasuke's cold, unconscious body behind him."

Tsunade waved her hand irritatedly at Sakura. "Fine. I'll notify Naruto when he comes back. If he breaks something, it's coming out of _your _paycheck. Briefing adjourned. You are dismissed."

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"Funny, I distinctly remember you saying it was a recon assignment, Sakura. Not a forensics' worst nightmare."

"Close your mouth before insects find it suitable for nests, Natsuya."

The team had found it suspiciously odd, as the dry, constricting scent of smoke began wafting around them as they closed in on their assigned coordinates. They soon discovered that the origin of the smoke was the result of what they were assigned to scrutinize as a precaution.

Sakura noted as they stood motionlessly before the remains of what was probably the village entrance that the corpses that littered the black ashen ground were sprawled in haphazard piles. The village attackers weren't particularly cautious with who they decided to kill – they simply combed through each house, claiming whatever riches they could find, before proceeding to kill the house's occupants and haul their bodies out of the house to burn the building down the best they could.

It wasn't absolute carelessness that they seemed to sign – it was mere cruelty and disinterest.

After scanning the rest of what she could see from her vantage point, Sakura turned her attention to the woman standing slightly behind her. The calculating gaze and the expression on Fuyuno Miyuki, Sakura's captain, assured her that she was just as unaffected as the rest of the team.

Sakura knew her captain well; they both were put under Tsunade and Kurenai's tutelage and had spent plenty of time together for them to become close friends. But the thing that had cemented their friendship was surfacing – the impulsive instincts they both shared that made them known as the most respected medics in Konohagakure.

"Search for survivors."

And it was exactly what they did, for hours on end before the sun that had just risen as they arrived at the village slid soundlessly beneath the horizon and the luminous moon took its place.

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"This village has been searched more thoroughly than a strip search in the Interrogation Building. It's two in the morning. Can you two take a break or something? The dead bodies aren't going anywhere," Natsuya grumped as she plopped down on a sparse chunk of wood.

"The ten minutes taken for a break could be the amount of time a person buried alive in a house has to live. We are the only people here capable of helping any potential survivors; therefore, we have a duty to those people to _help them_," Miyuki responded quietly, her attention still riveted to her search. "If you absolutely insist on taking a break, at least make it useful and do a sound check to see if you can feel any life in the area."

"Tch. Fine, I'll go to the town square and do a vibration there. I'll let you know if I get anything," Natsuya stood up, grumbling, and sped towards the center of the scorched village.

Turning back to her current fruitless search, Miyuki sighed before preparing to head to another unchecked house.

"Miyuki, I found something you might want to look at."

Her slightly slouched shoulders straightened – Sakura stood outside the doorway of the house Miyuki was inside of, panting and her expression grave.

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**This chapter is tad short - my muse has exhausted itself for the day. I apologize for taking such a horrendous time to update. I tend to do that... more often than I should. **

**But thank you to those who mustered up enough patience not to... do something bad to me. And thank you SO much to those who reviewed, you made my day! You all gave my story much more appreciation than I think it actually deserved. I'm a bit a new to Fanfiction. I really hope I can do your enthusiasm justice. **

**I just wanted to inform my incredibly AMAZING readers that my updates will be... erratic, for lack of a better word. Please, please don't angry at me for my horrible habit. I'm currently trying to kill it. Thank you guys so much for being so supportive and I really hope I can be worth it for you guys. Thanks again!**

**Oh, P.S.**

**Um. I absolutely CANNOT think of a decent title for my story. Does anyone have suggestions? I wanted it to deal with Sakura's new life and demeanor. As if she got where she is on her own. I know I'm being painfully vague but... help? Please?  
**


	3. Returns

**Metamorphosis**

_Written and typed by LittleMissBoredNAiry_

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**Chapter Three**

**Returns**

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His arms were burning. Not to mention his legs... and perhaps his back too. Naruto was willing to bet that a couple of his ribs were cracked along with his uncountable slew of injuries. What was irritating him beyond anything else, though, was that the man practically being dragged by Naruto was doing absolutely nothing to ease the pain. The annoyance was an apparent consequence for the pounding swell of joy, accomplishment and slight smugness in his chest.

"You _had _to be a stubborn bastard, didn't you? All you had to do was be cooperative but _no_, you had to let that stick shoved up your ass to do the talking," grumbling in annoyance, Naruto readjusted his grip on the man's side and shifted the limp arm slung over his shoulder. "I _warned_ you. I told you that if I had to, I would break both your legs and haul your stupid ass back to Konoha. I just had no idea you'd be insane enough to actually let that happen."

"Shut up, moron. You think I enjoy being dragged around like a sack of rice?" The weak retort that came from the man beside Naruto was anything but malicious.

"None of this would've happened if you stopped being such an asshole. And quit it with the whiny little hisses before I hand your rotting carcass over to somebody who really _can _chuck you around like a sack of rice," Naruto threatened, glancing down to his left at the man. "Both your legs may be broken, Sasuke, but you're not the one that has to drag a half-dead body back to the village and fill out a damn report on you. You're lucky I didn't break more than just your legs and one of your arms – I could've broken your nose and redecorated that face of yours too."

Sasuke was beyond answering with nothing more coherent than a forced grunt – Naruto had violently jostled one of Sasuke's legs as he was muttering and the pain had racked through his body, as though his legs were being repeatedly stabbed. It was enough that Naruto was dragging him unwilling on his own broken legs back to Konoha but any unnecessary moves to intensify his suffering was not taken in stride. Sasuke told himself it had nothing to do with the humiliation of losing (badly, at that) to _Naruto_.

"You're as lucky as hell that Sakura's such an advanced medic. Depending on my mood when we get back, I could give you to some two-bit medic and see what happens. You think they'd be stupid enough to set your legs wrong? I could just imagine you waddling like a duck for the rest of your life...-"

Realizing that Naruto had begun to ramble in an attempt to fill the silence, Sasuke had started to slide into his selective hearing bubble but stopped as he caught his first glance of the village gates. They didn't seem to have changed, still battle worn and foreboding as before. He couldn't quite place a feeling take root in his chest – it felt something akin to relief, perhaps of the possibility that his legs wouldn't be injured any further. He then noticed that the blond that was responsible for temporarily crippling him had ceased his inane rambling. Choosing to ignore the urge to turn and glance at Naruto, Sasuke began to succumb to the sensation that had begun swarming around him about three and half hours after both his legs had been broken.

"H-hey, Sasuke. You idiot! Don't pass out on me _now_! Shit! We're three kilometers away from the village! If you faint now, I'll have to carry you back, goddammit! Be a MAN!"

Sasuke felt his body tremble, his vision dissolving into colored spots, before tunneling rapidly. He heard Naruto curse him loudly and had prepared a sharp-tongued retort to further agitate him... but passed out before he could open his mouth.

* * *

When Sasuke awoke, he was wary to realize that he'd fallen unconscious and Naruto must've carried him back- no doubt accompanied with a mouthful of swearing, and then perplexed at the fact that he was incapable of feeling neither his legs nor his right arm. But as he became aware of his surrounding enough to realize why that was so, the tension in his body was tamed, to an extent – Naruto had taken him to what looked like a makeshift hospital to be healed. And apparently, he never left.

The blond was sitting backwards in a wooden chair that looked rather uncomfortable, his arms folded on the chair's back to support his head, his mouth agape. Sasuke was fairly certain there was bound to be a trail of drool on his face – he couldn't be sure; Naruto's chin was nestled in the crook of his right elbow.

Quickly assessing his surroundings, Sasuke became conscious of the fact that he was laying on a bed inside a large white tent. Confusion muddled his mind – hadn't they already arrived to Konoha? Had Naruto taken a detour in his hurry to get him to a medic?

His musings halted when Naruto's groggy snoring became silent. Sasuke turned his head back towards the chair beside his bed.

As though sensing his gaze, Naruto's eyes flickered open to hold his own, and Sasuke found himself staring into deep blue eyes. Eyes that were somber and pained, and resembling the eyes of a broken man.

"You're awake."

Naruto's low, scratchy voice was hoarse, as if he had been yelling for hours – though, Sasuke pondered, it wasn't as if Naruto hadn't roared at him beyond what he thought Naruto was capable of during their fight, and when he was preparing to fall unconscious. There was an eerie silence surrounding them, in the tent, on the outside, it was as if they were sitting on an abandoned battlefield.

Instead of answering him in affirmative, Sasuke settled for nodding and then quietly asking, "Where are we?"

Something flickered in Naruto's expression – a glint of anguish, desperation, or guilt, Sasuke noted.

Clearing his throat before he opened his mouth to answer, Naruto struggled to hold Sasuke's gaze but, finding that he couldn't no matter how hard he tried, finally settled for staring at the blank white wall of the tent by Sasuke's bed. "We're... in the Konoha hospital. I got to the village gates about fifteen minutes after you passed out, and then I took you here."

Sasuke glared up at Naruto suspiciously. "We're in a tent, Naruto. I may be on more morphine than accurately healthy, but I'm not stupid. Where are we?"

A couple minutes of struggled silence told Sasuke that Naruto was incapable of coherency. What could have possibly affected Naruto so much to make him seem as if he had just watched all of his friends die one by one? Granted, it wasn't one of the _best_ analogies he could come up with but it certainly described Naruto's broken expression to a point.

Finally realizing that he would have to take measures into his own hands to discover his whereabouts, Sasuke attempted to sit upright – a tad more difficult than imaginable with a three numb limbs.

His left arm was throbbing after he at last managed to sit upright in his bed, being that it was the only limb he could move properly. Sasuke scowled but was relieved to realize that all three numb limbs had been successfully healed and were only put under sedation to prevent any further pain and disturbance to them. Unfortunately, it seemed that the medic-nin that was assigned to give him the dosage of morphine had conferred more than was necessary.

"Do you think you're okay enough to go... outside of the tent?" Naruto seemed to have gained enough awareness to talk again, Sasuke noted. "I can take you outside in a wheelchair or something."

* * *

A vast sea of tents surrounded them, arranged trimly in rows and columns with enough of a gap in between for several people to walk through and still maintain their personal space. Both men stood in the immense clearing, located on the far upper middle of the ocean of tents, containing three huge tents and two conjoined ones.

Both Sasuke and Naruto had just exited the enormous conjoined white tent which, now that they were outside and could see it, had a red cross painted vividly over the canvas, indicating it was the hospital bay, where the medics resided and spent most of their time. It was about the same size as two of the smaller main tents combined. Another of the larger tents was a camouflaged green and brown and was, Naruto explained, where the captains and Hokage met and business was discussed. Naruto continued to narrate that the largest of the tents was the Mess Hall and the slightly smaller tent was the communal showers, which explained the hissing sound of running water.

Even though his short description of the area around them was certainly enlightening, Naruto had yet to inform Sasuke of their actual location. Sasuke didn't think Naruto was exactly avoiding the subject, more so just simply not realizing that he hadn't _told_ Sasuke yet.

So, pouncing with all the accuracy of a striking cobra on its prey the moment Naruto seemed to have run out of things to say, Sasuke decided to ask him again.

"Where exactly are we, Naruto?"

Staring somberly ahead at something in the sky wasn't particularly the answer he had expected. Sasuke scowled irately at Naruto, silently cursing the blonde's sudden seriousness, before turning his head to glare at whatever entity that had captured his attention.

At first, Sasuke thought Naruto had gone insane. What was so special about the Hokage Monument? Of course, it honored the most powerful and respected ninja of the village but, being that he lived in Konoha for more than a decade, what made it so unusual to Naruto at this moment?

And then it hit him, it was the _Hokage Monument_. The only place that it was located was in _Konoha_.

He finally took complete notice of his surroundings – from the smooth barren dirt ground beneath his feet to the complete lack of buildings around him. Even if he craned his neck as far as possible, all he could see were the dark top canvases of tents. But it was when he discerned the peculiar and definitely _unnatural_ sheer escalations that surrounded the entire encampment- in what appeared to a near perfect circle- that he actually _comprehended_ what had occurred on the very ground he stood on.

The great and all powerful Village of the Leaves had been destroyed. Entire buildings, streets and structures had been blasted out of existence. A massive crater marred the village. What could actually be identified as an original part of the village remained on the very outskirts of it, completely parallel to the outside border of the village for about one hundred or so yards.

The seemingly infinite sea of tents was nestled right in the center of the epicenter of the attack, spanning over not even half of the crater. Sasuke now realized exactly who those tents housed - civilians, ninja, men, women, children, and the elderly who had lost their homes, their loved ones, and their belongings because of the deadly assault of the village.

"The Head of the Akatsuki attacked Konoha about three weeks ago. He did this." Sasuke could barely make out what Naruto was whispering, as though he was deathly afraid to disturb the ghostly silence engulfing them.

Making a small noise in his throat, Sasuke nodded at Naruto before the two of them slowly made their way to the third largest of the tents- the camouflaged one.

Naruto held the flap open for the two of them and let it drop limply from his hand after both were safely inside the tent.

"What the hell do you want?" Sasuke remembered this man – he was the psychopath who had proctored the first part of his Chunnin Exams three years ago.

"Ah, hey, Ibiki, you know where Tsunade is? She told me to find her once Sasuke woke up," Naruto asked with an uncertain smile.

"She's in her office. Where the hell else would the Hokage be?" Ibiki growled, tearing his menacing glare from the table in front of him, littered in numerous papers.

"Uh, thanks."

* * *

Somehow- probably due to the fact that it was located on the few hundred or so yards on the very outside of the village- the infamous Hokage Mansion that cast its shadow over the village had remained relatively unscathed. Only a chunk of the front gates had been obliterated; the part that was curved closest to the center of the village had completely disappeared.

Even with its front gates in shambles, it still emanated a powerful, influential air. It wasn't oppressive, like the cruel authority figures of the Sound village, Sasuke found himself thinking. Sound was a village ruled by fear – under the constant terror of losing something precious, be it loved ones, personal belongings, futures, or ultimately, lives. The Hokage Mansion gave off no such impression but rather, a trustworthy sense of security. As if you could hand over your most prized treasures to the people residing inside it without worries or qualms.

Bemused to find himself thinking of security when he was about to hand his fate over to the woman in charge of that mansion, Sasuke managed a slight smirk before Naruto proceeded to help him into the large building, his arm slung over Naruto's shoulder like before.

* * *

"I find it _beyond_ amusing that Uchiha Sasuke finally decided to return merely _weeks_ after the village was attacked," Tsunade drawled, her arms crossed under her chest, and her face set into a flat stare.

Sasuke's expression matched hers, clenched teeth for clenched teeth. "I didn't _decide_ to return. I was taken here unwillingly. I had... no say in it."

Sharp as a senbon, Tsunade's expression switched from utterly blank to outright stony. She leaned forward in her chair, setting her elbows on her desk, to leer at Sasuke.

"You think that helps your situation? Do not shoot hot air out of your mouth and expect us to welcome you back with open arms, because you are in anything _but_ a nice situation right now." Hissing angrily at him wasn't part of the plan, but it felt _good_. Being the Hokage for the past month had been nothing but troublesome. The least she could do to alleviate some of her stress was to snap at someone that she knew very well deserved it... along with a cruel onslaught of torture sessions for treason and perhaps execution. She was caught between rampant fury and absolute exhaustion. The first urged Tsunade to immediately have Uchiha Sasuke given to Ibiki and forgotten, the latter simply made her want to heave him out her window and then forgotten.

After all, she hadn't known Sasuke as personally as she would have preferred, considering he used to be teammates with both Uzumaki Naruto and Haruno Sakura. All she was acquainted with was that after she healed him from a short encounter with Uchiha Itachi when she returned to Konoha, the next thing she had to do involving Uchiha Sasuke was to send a team to try and drag him back into the village after he abandoned it.

Since then, she had received accounts stating that he had made an effort to kill Naruto twice and injured most of Naruto's team. Sasuke himself had just reassured her that before his last encounter with Naruto, whom had managed to haul Sasuke back to Konoha, he had no inclination of returning.

Which would mean that Tsunade had no basis whatsoever to show leniency. So why was it so difficult to draw up some kind of conclusion to this? Of course, there was no standard or instance for the situation she was in – no missing-nin of Konoha had ever returned back to their village, no matter how reluctant, wishing for some sort of clemency, however subtly defiant it was.

She simply could not win, could she?

Tsunade closed her eyes with an inaudible sigh and quickly thought of some solution for her current predicament. A moment later, she re-opened her eyes, glancing first at Naruto then Sasuke. "Alright, _clearly_ I have neither the time nor the care to give you a trial at the moment or an execution. Therefore, you will be placed under a temporary probation and house arrest. You will be considered a visitor of Konoha accused of crime until further notice or until I find the time to pull off a trial for you. I'll have a Jounin or perhaps an ANBU monitor you regularly until I deem you trustworthy enough to be without one. But don't get your hopes up – that won't happen for a while... if at all.

"You will also adorn a bracelet to control your level of chakra and mark you as... well, _you_ for others to recognize. Don't scowl at me, Uchiha. I could have a poison needled collar shoved into your neck or I could settle for a nice pair of chakra manacles as well."

Sasuke had visibly bristled at the thought of being braced and marked as though he were cattle for all to see. But he was willing to wear the bracelet if it would avoid being shackled with a pair of chakra draining manacles, or a collar for that matter. Nodding at Tsunade in defeat, he remained silent to allow her to continue.

"I nearly forgot: you two, both you _and_ Naruto, are required to wear dog tags with identification at all times. If you're seen walking around without one, things will _not _be pleasant. All shinobi personnel have been given a dog tag as confirmation of their identity and civilians, an ID band. For shinobi, the ID's are also used as a form of compensation right now. We can buy supplies with them- necessities only- and later, when we actually begin to make enough money again, ninja can pay off half of what they bought in the 'Supplies Tent'.

"Uchiha Sasuke, you will be given both forms of identification considering your position. Naruto, I'm assigning you to keep constant watch on Sasuke as a precaution. Don't screw it up, Uchiha. You're being given a generous second chance right now. I don't care if you've killed more wanted men than half of our entire reserve of Jounin combined – as of right now, you are under partial arrest.

"I'll have-" Tsunade cut off, racking her mind to think of a Jounin with enough capability and spare time to be suitable for her next job. "-Ah, I'll have Genma explain our regulations and regimens and give you a short tour of the... site.

"Alright, you two are dismissed. I don't have enough time on my hands to deal with two knuckleheaded teenagers, so get out."

* * *

After the two had left the building, Sasuke noticed that Naruto had regained some of his usual spirit - either that or he found Sasuke's predicament quite amusing.

"I can't believe she put you under house arrest," Naruto said, grinning. "Well, actually I can. At least the meeting went... better than I expected. And here I was, getting ready to dodge her chair when it was going to go flying at us in her office." Shaking his head in bemusement, Naruto pulled Sasuke down the last step on the long, winding staircase that led to the second floor of the Hokage Mansion.

"Only you could find that funny, Uzumaki. But then again, you've never actually had her throw her armchair at you," a low, droll voice asked.

Both young men turned their heads toward the top of the staircase they had just climbed down – Shiranui Genma hopped down from the top step with considerable ease and landed in front of them without making a noise.

"Let's get going. I'm not in much of a hurry but I gotta a meeting in about half an hour so how about I skim over all the finer details and just give you the basics, hmm?"

The three men had begun walking at a leisurely pace through the barrage of tents – Genma seemed to be leading them to the massive center of it, where the much larger tents were.

"You already know what the bigger tents in the middle of the camp are, right? The big, double white tent with the red cross on top is self explanatory. That's where most of the medics spend their time and where you can find medical help for whatever reason you need it.

"The camo' tent next to it is where all the big business is done and tactics are made up by those big shots who think they can boss everybody around," Genma muttered the last part of his sentence with contempt and Naruto had to fight the urge to snicker.

"The smaller tent that's farther away from the main tents is the communal showers. You two will be assigned separate lockers and you'll have to shower at your own intervals. Hot water is pumped in once a week for us and you two better make the most of it." Genma stopped in front of the largest tent and turned to both of them, the senbon in his mouth waggling enthusiastically as he spoke. "The Mess Hall is where you can get your meals everyday and hang out for a bit when you want a break. For ninja, meal times in the Hall are regular. Morning meals are from four to six, lunch is noon to two, and evening meals are served at the same time as for the civilians but they eat in a different tent – dinner is served at six to eight. You can eat at times in between but there aren't going to be meals, just fruits and instant ramen and stuff, non-perishables too." Naruto's expression brightened instantly, Sasuke noticed, the moment Genma had uttered the word 'instant'.

"This is all I'm showing you today. If you have a problem looking for something, go to the med tent and ask - they've got the nicer people to help you," Genma grinned wryly as he began to rummage through his weapons pouch before he took something out and tossed them at Naruto.

"You two have been assigned a tent by Tsunade to share until we can get enough to go around for everybody. That's the tag that shows what tent number and block you're in for now and those are the keys to your lockers in the showers. The numbers are indented on the sides so you don't forget." As he explained, Genma had indicated to each object to make sure both men understood, as if he were speaking to mentally handicapped children.

"Don't talk to us like we're stupid. We get it, thanks, Genma," Naruto grumbled, pocketing the tags and keys.

Sasuke made him stop as Naruto was turning them to leave and go search for their tent – he wanted to ask Genma something.

Quirking an eyebrow at the two as they turned back around to face him, Genma clicked his tongue and made the tip of his senbon flick up and down.

"Tsunade said that we were required to wear dog tags as identification. Where do we get them?"

Genma suddenly grinned sheepishly. "Whoops, guess I forgot to tell you. You gotta go to the Base Tent- the camo' tent- and ask for them to be made, along with your ID band, Uchiha. They take a couple days to make so you'll probably go a few days without them.

"Since it's regulation to wear one, you'll just have to stick around with an official until you get the IDs. Either that or just be really sneaky." With those parting words, he swiftly disappeared.

"You've gotta be shitting me." Naruto swore as Genma quickly vanished. "How the hell do we buy supplies and not get in trouble without the damn pass card to everything?"

"You can start by stopping your uncontrollable urge to yell more often than you should," Sasuke said waspishly. "Let's just go to the Base Tent and ask for the tags to be made already. The sooner we request them, the faster they'll get here and we can find our tent."

"And not to mention sleep," Naruto muttered.

* * *

"_I DON'T FUCKING CARE IF IT'S THREE IN THE GODDAMN MORNING _AND_ YOUR DAY OFF! GET THE UNITS READY ON TSUNADE'S ORDERS _NOW!_"_

Groaning, Naruto sat up from his bed roll, shaking his head as if it would rid him of his sleepiness. Sasuke seemed just as irritated at the words being blared around the base, and after both their minds filtered the words belting from what was most likely Morino Ibiki's mouth, jolted fully awake and jumped to their feet.

It seemed as if some emergency platoon had just returned from an espionage mission of some sort and were in need of back up- what for, neither could bother to care as they scrambled to get themselves together, quickly changing into a second set of clothes.

After making sure that his headband was tightly in place, Naruto darted out of the tent before Sasuke and found the campground entirely bulging with life – it was absolutely nothing like the day before, when they first arrived at the site. Shinobi were running back and forth, yelling words and the higher ups were roaring commands.

Thankful that the morphine dosage given to Sasuke had worn off and he had complete mobility of his limbs again, Naruto motioned for Sasuke to follow him quickly. The return of _one_ team on a mission had never seemed so important before, that was, until Naruto saw nearly half of the medics that worked in the Hospital Bay speed out of the tent and work their way hurriedly to whatever destination they were ordered.

"What the hell's going on, Tsunade?" Naruto shouted as he and Sasuke made their way into her office. Just in time, it seemed, as she looked like she was preparing to leave the building in a hurried frenzy.

She rapidly explained the situation the best she could as she was bellowing orders to the constant stream of ninja who were unlucky enough to not receive orders from their Unit captains.

"A team of ninja sent a messenger hawk in advance, telling us that they found injured personnel- survivors- during their reconnaissance mission that was assigned to them, a load of them, it seems. They hoped that the messenger hawk would make it in advance enough to where we would be perfectly prepared to meet them and provide assistance, but it seems they ousted the hawk in speed.

"The message arrived about twenty minutes ago, saying that they would arrive in half an hour but border patrols already reported seeing them rushing past, only thirteen minutes away from the gates. They're due to arrive at any minute and we can't afford to waste time. Those survivors are vital.

"Uzumaki, Uchiha, I am assigning you as of right now, to help out any way you can. Carry survivors to the Hospital Bay, give them CPR, I don't give a damn, _no life can be wasted_. Do you understand me? Dismissed!"

Both men had stood silently in front of her desk throughout her explanation and sped out the Hokage Mansion with unheard of speed the moment she turned away from them to continue her preparation to go to Hospital Bay.

"How many survivors do you think they found on that mission?" Naruto asked loudly, in an attempt to talk over the unvarying blaring of shouts and orders. "Can't be that many, right? How many people can one squad carry?"

They rushed through the swarm of ninja gathering at the front of the gates, anxiously waiting for the platoon's arrival, before skidding to a halt.

Quickly as they stopped, they had to move again, in order to avoid being struck out of the way by the sudden mass of black fur running past them, towards the makeshift medical tent set up a mere five hundred feet from the village gates.

"What the _fuck _was-"

"Get out of the_ way_!" It was the only warning before a ninja, slightly shorter than him, with long hair tied in a conventional braid, hurled herself past them, over their heads and nearly stomping Naruto in the face. Sasuke noticed irritably that she didn't bother to turn and apologize to the two of them for practically knocking them out of her way, though she had a decent excuse not to - hanging limply in her grip were two pale bodies, both entirely conscious and utterly terrified expressions plastered on their faces. One was slung precariously over her right shoulder, the other hooked for dear life in her left arm.

He barely had time to see their petrified faces before they disappeared in a blur.

"Uzumaki! Uchiha!" gasped an exhausted looking Chūnin, "Lady Hokage ordered me to inform you that she found a suitable job for you to help. As the squad members arrive, carrying survivors, you are to relieve them of the victims and carry them to the medical tent over there."

Nodding curtly at him before they muscled their way to the front lines of the large group intercepting the gates, Naruto thought it was rather odd that such a small squad would make such a big ordeal of survivors. There was no way there would be such a demand of assistance unless it was a huge emergency.

"Naruto, get ready." Sasuke hissed at him, still staring at the rapidly approaching group of masked ninja, all three of which were _women_, he noticed.

"Oh, shut up. Just pay attention to _your_ half of the work and let me worry about myse- _the hell? _ DON'T JUST _FLING_ THE DAMN BODIES AT ME, YOU JACKASSES!"

But the shinobi paid no heed to Naruto's cursing, merely casting him fleeting glances before they disappeared into the canvas area of the medical tent. Sasuke's back soon broke into his vision, carrying four bodies, all piled on his shoulders, and he then turned to the blond.

"Hurry up and get them into the med tent before they _die_, Naruto."

* * *

He was left sitting on a wooden chair in the Hospital Bay, staring at his clothes and wondering if blood stained badly. After all, it was the only other pair of clothes he managed to scavenge and have on hand before his dog tag necklace arrived.

He had lost track of the number of bodies he carried in and out of the med tents, whether to get them medical treatment or to take them to another tent. What perplexed him beyond all reason, though, was that the platoon that managed to take all the victims to the village wasn't _even_ a platoon – it was a team of three _women_... and a wolf. The great mass of black fur that had bulleted past them on its way to the med tent was a great black wolf, most likely Akamaru's size, if not bigger. The overlarge creature was, Naruto found out later when he spent a tiring twenty minutes comforting parents of the whereabouts of their children, sent ahead of the rest of the group to carry injured kids to receive medical attention first.

Speaking of the women that had _carelessly_ tossed the bodies at him as they approached the med tent, Naruto had caught them rushing past _everywhere_. He soon found out afterwards the secret to how a three-man team had managed to escort and carry back over thirty survivors of a village raid - shadow clones, multitudes and multitudes of shadow clones. And there he was, thinking that he had gone slap happy from lack of sleep, when it was merely a clone constantly reappearing in a place he had just previously seen them.

"Your first day back in the village and you're already doing heavy-duty work, huh?" Naruto smiled wryly at Sasuke, who sat down in a plastic chair next to him with a tired scowl.

Grunting passively was Sasuke's only response.

"I know what you mean. Goddamn. One of the medics told me that they didn't have to do much for the survivors - the team that brought them back had already done a good job of fixing them up enough to take them to Konoha. Here we were, thinking that it was a life or death situation for them. Tch. They could've _told_ us... would've saved a load of energy," Naruto grumped, crossing his arms and further smearing the blood stains on his shirt.

"Have you seen a medic on break? I need them to stitch my hand back up."

Naruto choked and whipped his head around to stare at Sasuke's crudely bandaged and definitely _bloody_ hand. "What did you _do_?! It looks like you sliced your hand open with a butcher knife."

Sasuke glowered at Naruto's comment and tucked his hand in his pocket, wincing as the side of his pocket grazed his deep cut. "One of the people I was taking to see a medic went berserk when he saw one of the headbands on a ninja and grabbed a scalpel by the bed that the medic was going to use to remove something from his leg. He took the scalpel and cut me. Have you seen a damn medic or not?"

"I can't believe you got _stabbed_ by a civilian! An injured one too! Oh, that's just too hilarious!" Naruto sniggered noisily at Sasuke's expense before quieting down enough to point down the walkway that led to the other tent of Hospital Bay and stood up. "The medics' offices are in the other tent, you'll probably find one there on break. I'll go with you. I wanted ask the Head Medic about something anyways."

* * *

Popping another soldier pill into her mouth, along with another apple slice, Sakura scribbled her way through the several neat stacks of paperwork that had been ceremoniously dropped off at her office by multiple medics. Each person being treated in the medical tents had to be documented and made sure that their identity was known before they were taken for questioning about the raid on their village. Unfortunately, the load of patients currently being treated outnumbered the number of medics assigned to fill out their paperwork: her.

Sakura heaved a sigh, taking the last slice of apple and sliding it into her mouth, savoring the sweet, tangy taste. She hadn't had anything this fresh tasting in weeks, not to mention all she could eat on her past three consecutive missions were dried foods and soldier pills.

"Um, Miss Haruno?" a timid, albeit tired voice asked from behind the canvas wall in front of her. She signed again, standing to her feet and dropping the paper plate into the bin by the entrance of her tent. Ducking through the narrow gap between her office and the large room filled with occupied camp beds, she met the eyes of the medic she assigned to the D Row of the tent.

"Yes?"

The younger medic hesitantly looked from Sakura's eyes to the entrance of the Hospital Bay main entrance and back again. "There are a couple of men outside, looking for you. One of them men wants to talk to you and the other has a severe cut on his hand that he asked to be stitched. Shall I let them in?"

Sakura smiled kindly at the younger girl and nodded. "Go and tell them to go to my office. I could use a break from the paperwork." Nodding once last time, Sakura turned on her heel and walked briskly back towards her office and sat down, massaging her temples. She covered her eyes with her left hand from the bright light. The stream of soldier pills that she had constantly popped in her mouth like candy was dwindling and her body was taking that as a sign to shut down and rest. Sakura estimated it was another four hours before she passed out in exhaustion. Natsuya had already fallen unconscious and was resting in her tent – all three girls had eaten enough soldier pills in the past two and half days than two entire platoons of ninja combined.

And she still had the loads of documents and paperwork to fill out and sign... She was never going to get a break, goddammit.

"_Sakura_?"

* * *

**Ah, fuck. Pardon me, but it seems Kishimoto decided to be... well, him. If you haven't read the latest chapter that was just released, chapter 430, then you wouldn't completely understand my frustration at his complete disregard to FanFiction writers. NNGH. **

**Does someone happen to know his address? And is capable of messaging it to me? Maybe that way, I could send him a letter to express my complete outrage in his disrespect. HAH. More like poison in an envelope. **

**But, I updated sooner than expected! Thanks so much to those who put me on your alert list, favorite list and reviewed. You have my utmost love. My last chapter fell short so I felt the need to make this one longer than... well, any other chapter I've written, all five thousand, eight hundred fifty one words. Not counting the titles and extremely long author's note. **

**Um. Ah, yes. I almost forgot. Kishimoto, you are stupid. Terminally stupid and deserving of **_**many**_** rewards but stupid, nonetheless. It is amazing you still managed to release yet another chapter but to my disappointment, you actually skipped right to the part where Naruto kicks Pain's butt. Why? Because you hated me in a past life and want to punish me for whatever misdeed I put forth on you **_**now**_**, of all times, goddammit. Well, you know what? I hate you too. **

**Thanks so much to those who reviewed and all that jazz! My muse loves you! Well, sort of. Thanks again!**


	4. Talking Among Strangers

**Metamorphosis**

_Written and typed by LittleMissEffervescent_

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* * *

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**Chapter Four**

**Talking Among Strangers**

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* * *

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They could _not_ have the worst possible sense of timing. It was only during the moments when she required as much energy as possible that they both decide to pay her a completely unexpected and totally unwanted—at least in _her _opinion—visit.

Refraining from gnashing her teeth lividly, Sakura sat staring at Naruto, then swiveled her gaze to Sasuke, her face void of anything remotely friendly. She had come across them rather frequently today and, of course, was quite alarmed when she spotted the familiar crop of blond hair and, even more surprisingly, Sasuke's form as she flew back into the village. Though her initial reaction was something along the lines of introducing Sasuke's face to her newly purchased spiked heel boots, Sakura managed to rein control, shoving aside her pounding impulses and preparing to take care of the matters at hand... all the while, managing to get the satisfaction of launching something fairly heavy at Sasuke.

But now, she needed clarifications. Sakura stood, walking briskly out of her office tent, past the anxious and exhausted looking nurse and the Hospital Bay tent, leaving Naruto to trail after her, confusion most likely lining his face. She was, however, quite aware of the fact that Naruto was dragging Sasuke by his shirt collar behind him.

Sakura marched swiftly though the rows and rows of tents, across the desolate dirt crater surrounding the campsite, flying past what little of the front gates remained, and entered the Hokage Mansion, her face flinty. With a desperate call of her name—attempting to get her attention, no doubt—Naruto pursued Sakura, despite her rapid pace and Sasuke's hissed protests to release his shirt collar.

Ignoring them, Sakura entered the doorway of her master's office and shut the door behind her firmly. Due to her past experiences with Naruto's sense of diplomacy, Sakura wasn't surprised when both men, Naruto leading with Sasuke being pulled in behind him, pushed open the door and stepped inside. Tsunade had a minute twitch in her left eye, an involuntary reaction she displayed when she was either extremely angry or severely alcohol deprived. Taking in light of what the village had to go through the past few weeks, Sakura had a feeling it was both.

It wasn't much of a planned action as it was simply a habit when both Sakura and Tsunade's gazes wheeled around to stare at the men steely. Naruto was looking at them both expectantly, urging them to discuss whatever issue they were about to address and Sasuke simply wrenched himself out of Naruto's grip and stared at the two, his expression controlled and indifferent. Casting an appraising glower, Sakura was able to confer to Tsunade exactly what her problem was effortlessly.

The Hokage sighed haggardly and Sasuke didn't think that was a positive sign... not if the pulsing twitch on her left eye was already any indication.

"I assume the reason you burst into my office so suddenly has some apparent connection with those two?"

* * *

Naruto appeared just as perplexed as Sasuke felt. He was pacing restlessly back and forth in the hallway, his pace steadily gaining speed as Sasuke leaned silently against the wall beside the office door. Even though Naruto wasn't saying anything, Sasuke could tell how anxious he was – it was rare for Naruto to keep his silence, but given the circumstances, Sasuke wasn't surprised. The look on both Sakura and Tsunade's expressions before they kicked both of the men out of the office was enough to silence even Naruto's spirit.

They could only guess half-heartedly about what Sakura was discussing with the Hokage, but the only thing Sasuke and Naruto were absolutely positive about were that _they _were the main subject.

It was then that the door to Tsunade's office swung open and Sakura stepped out. Sasuke was only dimly aware of the rather foreboding glimmer in the Hokage's expression – it was the absolutely exhausted and completely _resigned _look Sakura donned that had his attention – it stirred something within him. Something that he told himself was suspicion but was dangerously close to worry.

After closing the door, Sakura turned back to Naruto and Sasuke and stared at them, her gaze swiveling between them before settling somewhere in between both men's shoulders. Naruto frowned—Sakura was openly avoiding eye contact, which meant that she either avoiding direct contact with them, physically or verbally, or she was just very, very angry at them. Frankly, Naruto wasn't sure of which one he would prefer less.

"I've got to get you two up to speed about what's been going on, whether you like it or not, so just follow me quietly and try not to draw attention to yourselves."

So it was narrowed down to either she was avoiding eye contact out of dislike of having to touch them somehow, or Sakura was just that furious with them. Perfect.

* * *

Managing not to draw attention to oneself was much more difficult than Sakura had initially advised, Sasuke though uneasily – something tugged at the dark edges of his mind, keeping him paranoid. It haunted him with hisses of the familiarity Sasuke grew accustomed to during his stay in Sound, the constant suspicion that he had forced past the outer seams of his mind. The only thing keeping it at bay was the utter determination to push himself to his very limits, to prepare himself for the finalization of his goal.

Here, in Konoha, there was nothing keeping him from noticing the cautious, guarded looks from each and every shinobi he and Naruto passed as they rapidly trailed after Sakura. He couldn't help but be naturally annoyed.

Naruto nudged Sasuke quickly, though still keeping his eyes carefully tacked on Sakura's back, most likely out of fear she would outpace them and leave them stranded in a rather crowded square of tents. "Where are we going?" Then, he frowned – although he hadn't turned his gaze toward Sasuke, he was still aware of the wrenching cringe as Sasuke stepped away from Naruto's arm. Seemed Uchiha Sasuke still wasn't accustomed to things he'd been deprived of the past four years, one of them being actual physical contact with another human being that was not attempting to harm him bodily.

"Just wait until we get there and find out," Sasuke said bluntly, nodding to the medic walking before them.

"Do you think it involves food?"

* * *

Strangely enough, it did.

Sakura had guided them inside the Mess Hall tent and, after indicating for them to sit down on one of the empty tables, walked behind a counter, preparing something that neither Naruto nor Sasuke could see, no matter how much they craned their necks. Though Naruto was the only one to try and strain his neck in an attempt to peek.

They found out soon enough – Sakura walked back around the counter, producing two identical and extremely familiar cups that were steaming almost reassuringly in her hands. She placed the cups on the wooden table directly in front of Naruto along with a pair of disposable wooden chopsticks and gave him a nod.

Sasuke could almost hear Naruto grinning from ear to ear. Even if he hadn't, he couldn't ignore the sloshing and noisy slurping beside him – Naruto had dived into a cup of ramen without a thought.

Now that he was assured that Naruto would be occupied for the next couple of minutes, Sasuke took the time to examine his surroundings. The entire Mess Hall was an enormous tent and, though it looked slightly larger from the outside, Sasuke suspected there was a portion of the tent separated from the rest of the Mess Hall to actually prepare the food. The entrances of it faced the square outside where all the other main tents were situated and, as he noticed when he walked inside, there were four rows of long, wooden tables with similar-looking benches attached to them where the ninja sat to eat. There was a significant break in the middle of each long table where a space was put to lead to a second entrance at the side of the tent – the tables began a few feet from the side of the tent where the main entrance was, and ended shortly before they reached the lengthy counter where food was served and trays were collected.

The only thing Sasuke found off about the Mess Hall was that it was completely empty; the only people sitting inside were Naruto, Sakura, and himself.

Sasuke moved his speculations from his surroundings to the two people sitting at the table with him – Naruto was still gulping down his ramen, at a slightly slower pace, and Sakura seemed content with observing Naruto thoughtfully, still keeping her silence. There was one small change in her facial expression that Sasuke had failed to notice before and, now that he had, it made his stomach churn uncomfortably. She was studying Naruto with a melancholy look, a soft quirk of her lips. She seemed to look nostalgic, reminiscing on whispers of memories.

As though sensing his gaze, Sakura's eyes flickered to hold his own, and her face changed, the dim downhearted look vanished. Nothing save the color and shape of her eyes was recognizable; he had never noticed a look like that from Sakura before... but now he was staring a stranger in the face.

The longer he scrutinized the medic, the more perplexed he became. He hadn't seen Sakura for months, and most certainly hadn't had any genuine interaction with her in years but, as he saw the differences in her current appearances with what he could recollect from when they were younger, his recognition of her was almost intangible. It bothered him, along with the feeling of vulnerability, the sensation of having a part of him exposed when being met with a situation that he felt he was incapable of reacting to. Sasuke was also a tad annoyed that Naruto was still blissfully indulged in his last cup of ramen to fill the steely silence with nothing more than the noises he was _currently _making, which, when pushed to a certain degree, were something Sasuke deemed as completely unnecessary.

"After you finish, I'll take you to a more appropriate place. You can get your answers there."

It was direct and point-blank, it left little space for lengthy elaboration, which was exactly what Sakura was determined to avoid. She already had to plow through a subject that was still rather touchy to her and Sakura knew that it would affect Naruto just as severely as it had her. She wasn't even sure she would be capable of handling the reality of the subject she was about to approach without experiencing that strange, hypertensive cold rush she went through just weeks earlier, when she saw, firsthand, what Pein had done to her village. It was emotionally shattering and Sakura had a feeling Naruto was about to go through the same thing, if not even more aggressively than she did. Sasuke, on the other hand, she couldn't, and most certainly wouldn't, expect a similar reaction as she would Naruto – though Kakashi was Sasuke's respected mentor, Sakura had decided not to speculate how much the last few years had morphed him.

Naruto, however, seemed to simply mull over and savor the last of the aroma of ramen still wafting around him before he finally set down his wooden chopsticks, along with his second empty cup, and met Sakura's gaze straight on. She tried not to flinch to the best of her ability but it was evident that both men noticed her jerk back slightly. Sakura chose to ignore them and to focus instead on guiding them to their destination. Naruto seemed to have the same idea in mind.

"Lead the way."

* * *

The place that Sakura led Naruto and Sasuke to turned out to be the shinobi memorial, where the names of the ninja killed in action were engraved and forever honored. None of the men had an inkling of an idea why they were there but as Sakura began tracing names silently on the memorial, Sasuke could plainly see that her demeanor had changed... Somehow, in some way, her perspective had shifted – it was subtle, practically unnoticeable... but he saw it. Sasuke had seen the same changes sweep through him only months ago and he could see them tearing their way through Sakura viciously. Something had happened, something penetratingly drastic, and it had struck Sakura mercilessly. It didn't take to many guesses to figure out that the marble cenotaph towering over her was an aspect of why.

Sasuke didn't know how long they stood there, staring at that memorial, and he began wondering what Sakura's intentions were for bringing them there, when she spoke, her voice raspy and almost too quiet to hear.

"Do you know how many casualties Konoha suffered?" When neither of the young men standing behind her answered, as she expected, Sakura spoke again. "From the moment Pein infiltrated the village to the instant he left, over one hundred fifty lives were taken, well over one-third of them being ninja."

Sakura stopped tracing the all-familiar names on the memorial, and merely rested her palm on the icy marble, closing her eyes with a tired sigh. "The new names carved onto this cenotaph have some that I can't connect to faces and some that I'm not capable of even recognizing, but there _are _names that you two would distinguish just as well as I would."

Naruto was shaking, Sasuke could plainly see, and he was trying so desperately to gain control as he stared at Sakura's back but it only seemed to make his shaking all the more violent – Sasuke was not looking forward to what would come next, but he couldn't possibly imagine how terrifying it would be for Naruto, to find out which of those he held close were lost.

Sakura began speaking again but her voice had a new quality about it – no longer raspy and inaudible, more so monotone and thoughtless, as if she didn't need to search her memory for those names... that they were engraved into her mind like they were the memorial. She went through the names robotically as if she was listing ingredients off of a recipe.

Naruto's uncontrollable shaking had reached the point where he wasn't capable of standing and when the last two names slid off Sakura's tongue, Naruto threw up as he fell to his knees in the damp grass.

After the last of the vomit left him, Naruto raised his head as he wiped his mouth to stare at Sakura, whose back was still turned to them. Muttering incomprehensibly, Naruto attempted to stand, but his strength seemed to have abandoned him and Sasuke had to resort to grabbing his arm hastily to avoid Naruto falling face forward into the dirt. Sakura was standing before the memorial, as if oblivious to everything around her—even Naruto's retching hadn't pulled a reaction out of her.

Naruto took no notice either—he continued to stare at the medic, his mumbling becoming more and more decipherable. It wasn't until his mutters had successfully reached her ears that Sakura gave any indication of a reaction.

"It... it was my fault. They were killed because of me." Sasuke could recognize that tone—that edge of desperation and complete and utter horror that Naruto had about him when they'd first arrived in Konoha. "Pein wiped out the village looking for _me_... All those people... all those _lives_ were destroyed because of _me!_"

Akatsuki had annihilated Konoha in their search for _him_. The reason half the village was dead and in absolute decimation, lay entirely on Naruto, the host of the Nine Tailed Fox, Kyuubi. Shaking his head despairingly, Naruto began sinking to his knees, as if he was no longer capable of taking his own weight. Sasuke's grip on Naruto was beginning to slip as well and he had to act quickly to readjust it before Naruto broke completely, but something appeared before him so swiftly, so _suddenly_ that it almost made Sasuke drop Naruto entirely.

Sakura flickered in front of them, her image winking out of existence and then rematerializing before them, her face ablaze. She lurched toward them sharply, one hand slapping Sasuke's arm from around Naruto's shoulders, the other bulleting forward and grabbing Naruto's shirt viciously. She pulled him up roughly and Sasuke was amazed their foreheads hadn't collided violently from the aggressive grip Sakura had on his shirt. Frankly, Sasuke was astounded that she was able to hold Naruto up with such ease when he was still standing only halfway, meaning Sakura was hoisting up most of his weight with merely one arm.

"If you even _dare_ to think that this... this _devastation_ was your fault, I swear to you, Uzumaki Naruto, I'll start from your neck, end at your ankles and break every bone in between. _Twice_. Despite how insulting and hurtful it sounds, you contributed absolutely _nothing_ in that fight against Pein and you did nothing to harm the village during the battle. You were training to get stronger in order to protect the village you live in and to lug _that _asshole back home. If you _ever _have the thought that you are the reason for this, you better make sure you curb it before _I _do." As Sakura spoke venomously, her grip seemed to tighten substantially and Naruto appeared to be shuddering, not out of fear, but due to the fact that while she was speaking, Sakura jerked his shirt forward and let go, only to jerk him forward once more, again and again, as if she was restraining herself from launching her fist at him.

"Losing part of the village was, no doubt, a devastating blow to take but it was a smaller one to take compared to letting Akatsuki get their hands on you and having every single person, be it ninja or civilian, killed. We took a sacrifice—Lady Tsunade was well aware of what kind of choice she made when she let you out of the village."

Sasuke was beginning to grow wary of Sakura lashing out violently, which was a shock in itself, but it dissipated—she seemed to have realized what she looked like she was preparing to do, what with her right hand pulled back ready to launch. Sakura looked quickly from her raised arm to Naruto's face, astonishment lighting her face at her own actions, before releasing Naruto from her grip as if their contact burned her. An odd expression flew across her features, one that Sasuke could only describe as shame, like Sakura couldn't believe she had come so close to hurting Naruto... physically, at least.

Little did Sasuke know that his assumption was, quite frankly, dead on—crushing shame coursed through Sakura as she realized how quickly and obviously she had snapped even when, just a few minutes earlier in the Mess Hall, she had vowed to herself not to slip, not to let her mask crack. The blunder made disappointment bubble in her stomach painfully. Naruto was in enough pain as it was; yelling at him was just going to fuel the fire. So, taking a deep, steadying breath, Sakura knelt to Naruto's eye level—the moment she released him from her vice-grip, Naruto had stumbled backward and landed with a thump in the grass, not unlike a child falling on the backside after they tripped—and offered her hand to him with, what Sakura hoped to be, a reassuring expression pasted on her face.

Whether or not Naruto believed her appearance, he took her hand regardless, and took a moment to be astounded when she hoisted him up with such eerie ease, it was as if he sack of wheat she was about to throw over her shoulder.

Once he steadied himself and dusted off his pants as casually as he was capable of, Naruto opened his mouth to ask a question he was sure Sakura was dreading, but she cut him off before he even began.

"I won't be able to do any further explaining to you two; I've got a job to do back at the hospital and I'm needed in another place as well. I'm sorry but you'll have to go to Tsunade soon after this to find out the rest of what's been going on." She knew it was gutless and she knew it would only disappoint both her and Naruto even more, but Sakura didn't think she would be able to stand another breakdown from Naruto like earlier. She couldn't handle watching Naruto go through that sort of pain while trying to endure her own... so, attempting to ignore Naruto's crestfallen expression and Sasuke's disbelieving stare, Sakura led them back the campsite, only, instead of taking them to Hospital Bay—where _she _was heading—Sakura took them to the entranceway of the Hokage Mansion property.

"This is your stop. After you're briefed by Lady Tsunade, you can just go and have dinner and then head to your tent," Sakura said before turning on her heel and walking back towards the bustling square of tents. She paused, however, when a hand shot out and grabbed her wrist, tugging her back gently, as a child would when their parent had forgotten something or left something behind.

It was Naruto, of course. Sakura knew mostly because Sasuke wasn't the type to initiate physical contact, be it with an enemy ninja or _her_, so she twisted her head around to the right and threw Naruto an inquiring glance.

He, apparently, didn't know why he held her back either, so he simply gave a nervous chuckle and let Sakura's arm go quickly. "Ah... heh. We haven't really sparred in a while, Sakura, so you think we could maybe have a session sometime soon? Maybe when your job at the hospital isn't as busy?"

Her eyes instantly softened at the hopeful look on Naruto's face and Sasuke almost felt sickened. The idiot was trying to confront her about avoiding them and, instead, he ends up asking her for a sparring session? Sasuke knew that Sakura was purposely steering clear of any sort of contact with them out of the fear of facing, not only Naruto, but herself. She was handing the more difficult job of explaining the rest of what happened to Tsunade out of cowardice... and it looked like Sakura was just as well aware of that fact as he was.

In reality, Sakura was much more than just conscious to the fact than she was comfortable with and the knowing and _condescending _expression attached to Sasuke's face made her want to smack it off merely for the satisfaction of actually hitting him.

Nevertheless, she gave Naruto a quick smile, giving him her affirmation, before turning her heel once more and walking briskly back to the square of tents, leaving the two young men to head up the steps into the Hokage Mansion. As they walked up the stairs, one practically charging forward in anticipation, the other nonchalantly sauntering behind with his hands stuffed resolutely in his pockets, as per usual, they were not aware of Sakura, who had paused and turned back, only to see her old teammates' backs, and the all familiar angry bitterness and shame in herself blazed as powerful as ever. She was ashamed of herself for not being able to handle the same pain Naruto was about to experience and, while the news of Kakashi and Shizune had struck her hard, Sakura had drowned all the sorrow and grief with a tunnel vision for her jobs and dedication for improvement, so now that she saw Naruto about to go through hell, the ache that had been pushed so far back returned with a vengeance, attacking her at her most vulnerable, all the while exploiting her most tender spot—Naruto.

It wouldn't help her temperament in the slightest once the Hokage gave Naruto and Sasuke the complete story of the invasion—Sakura was just as prepared to shun the sympathy as she was itching to scream obscenities at the world until her throat ripped. Though Sakura had specifically requested of Tsunade not to inform the two of information found unnecessary, the Hokage would most likely ignore it now, since Sakura practically dumped another load of work onto her without so much as an apology.

Once those two, especially Naruto, discovered how much more she had in common with them than before, there would be an unending stream of sadness for her sake, even if it was completely unspoken, it would be there for her to feel, suffocating her. Of course, Sakura was only going to expect this from Naruto—Sasuke, after all, seemed as arrogant and confident in himself as the last time she ran into him. And she had yet to exchange even a single word with the Uchiha—they've hardly even made eye contact. Sakura was deeply wary that if she did somehow begin speaking to him, it would be with her foot crushing his windpipe.

Though the thought brightened her mood considerably, the reminder of her oncoming assignment at the Torture and Interrogation Unit Building dampened it immediately. Her eyes strayed from the entrance of the Hokage Mansion, of which Sasuke and Naruto had long ago passed, to her hands, quivering in front of her. She stared at them blankly, an almost forlorn dullness in her eyes, and then, taking a deep, shuddering breath, looked upward.

"You're a coward..."

* * *

**HOLY SHIT. **

**Kishimoto, you did **_**not **_**just bring them back to life, you sick bastard. (Not that I'm not absolutely **_**thrilled **_**Kakashi's not, you know, **_**dead**_**.) BUT REALLY—ARE YOU **_**SHITTING**_** ME? REALLY? **_**REALLY!? **_

**You just gotta stomp all over my dreams, don't you!? **

**ASDFGHFKJLADSL;F DSF **

**And on that note, please review. I have a feeling I'll need it. If you'll excuse me, I think I'll go crawl in a corner and sob a little. **

**(But now that the whole invasion thing is done and over with, it's on to the imminent ass-kicking of one Uchiha Sasuke by one totally **_**awesome **_**Haruno Sakura. And, of course, Naruto too.)  
**


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